Drugs and knives have been seized by police after they conducted what officers said was a successful operation to tackle organised crime in Sheffield city centre.

In total 12 stop and searches were carried out, and two blades were recovered – included a large knife from a garden.

Seven traffic offence reports were issued and cannabis was recovered during the operation on Thursday 7 March.

Sergeant Simon Kirkham, who led the operation, said: “The operation was a great success and I am pleased that another large knife is now off the streets of Sheffield.

“I hope this provides encouragement to local people that we are committed to keeping our communities safe. This is yet another successful deployment combining teams from across our force area to proactively address violent crime.”

During the operation members of Sheffield City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team were joined by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and Roads Policing group which conducted targeted vehicle stops at Moorfoot.

The operation also involved carrying out open land searches looking for drugs and weapons, and using a drugs dog.

People and vehicles stopped were scoped out by Police Dog Elsa who was alerted to the presence of drugs on five different occasions.

Sergeant Tuscany Fox of Sheffield City Centre Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “Operations like these send a clear message to our communities that we are taking positive action in keeping the streets of our city free from crime.”

The operation is part of South Yorkshire Police’s wider Grip Programme of activity. The Home Office funded programme aims to reduce the most serious violence through targeted hotspot policing and problem-solving initiatives.